‘The Fosters’ Recap: S5E4 “Too Fast Too Furious”

When we last left the Foster fam, Mariana had signed up for the roller derby team by forging Lena’s signature because she needed an outlet not that STEAM club has shunned her. Mariana’s new roller derby endeavor doesn’t dull the pain or seeing the trophy STEAM club earned without her name on it, and Emma capitalizes on the opportunity to twist in the knife a bit. Also in the halls of the high school, Callie sees her ex making out with his new boo by the lockers. These are just two of the reasons you couldn’t pay me enough to ever go back to high school.

At her first practice, Mariana realizes the derby might be a bit more than she bargained for. The sight of her skating wobbly around wearing a butt pad is one that I never knew I needed to see. But sure enough, Mariana’s perfectionist nature sparks some conflict between her and another veteran member of the team. Mariana gets awarded the Jammer position, one that Ximena had just informed one of the other teammates wasn’t up for grabs. It looks like they’ve risen above it all by the end of the episode, but sometimes even derby girls need other outlets for aggression, so we’ll see. One thing is for sure though, and that’s the pride Mariana feels over her bumps and bruises. Mama Lena catches her admiring them in the bathroom mirror, so I give it another episode or two before that comes to a head.

At the doctor’s office, Jesus confronts Lena about overhearing her confession of fear over his emotional outbursts. The doctor adjusts Jesus’s meds to hopefully help him with his impotence, but when he excitedly delivers the news to Emma, she mentions her fear of his recent violent tendencies. He assures her he’d never hurt anyone, but that’s got to be up in the air at this point. Basically, everyone is scared of Jesus, including Jesus himself, who just wants his life back.

My suspicions are confirmed pretty much immediately when Jesus storms outside and shoves Brandon after he finds out Emma knows about the bedroom incident. Brandon pushes back, so of course he’s the one who gets in trouble. Grace offers up her place for Brandon to stay for a few days, but after having dinner with his dad and A.J., a discussion about monogamy sparks Brandon to stay with his bio dad instead.

Brandon continues down his constant road of self sabotage when Cortney calls with a babysitting request. Grace, who has given up technology for the day, doesn’t get Brandon’s cancellation text, so she shows up and decides to stay and hang with Brandon along with Cortney’s son Mason. Just as you might think Brandon is finally maturing by having a self aware chat with Grace about his tendency to jump in to the caretaker role too quickly, he backslides by offering Cortney and Mason a place to stay.